Home ›› 08 Oct 2021 ›› World Biz
Airbus is sticking to its quest for record jet output after airlines reported glimmers of a post-pandemic recovery this week, and believes engine makers who have questioned its most ambitious proposals will be “unable to resist” demand.
Airbus has said it hopes to almost double jet production in a few years as borders reopen. Engine makers fear doing so too quickly could upset their own recovery, by forcing existing jets into retirement rather than their repair shops.
Interviewed at the airline industry’s main annual event, Airbus Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer held out the prospect that Airbus would play on fierce competition between engine makers as it aims to secure future output of its A320neo.
“There will be engines. That is the beauty of having engine competition in the programme,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Air Transport Association, the first such industry gathering since the pandemic.
“There is a lot of rhetoric ... (but) at the end of the day if customers ... demand more modern airplanes ... no engine maker in the world is going to be able to resist the call of nature. So I’m not concerned about it.”
Airbus is sold out of its A320neo series until 2026, he said.
In May, Airbus issued a mix of firm targets and scenarios that could lift narrowbody A320-family output to 75 jets a month by 2025 from about 40 this year, and 60 pre-COVID.
The head of France’s Safran , part of the CFM engine venture with General Electric, said earlier this year he was not sure whether rates above 60 could be sustained.
